Workers and Revolutions A Historical Paradox

Karl Marx and other nineteenth-century theorists believed that capitalism’s rise would cause the continuous expansion of the working class, and thus produce “its own grave-diggers”. Looking back on the developments over the past six or seven centuries reveals clearly that the “purest” proletarian revolutions – with absolute dominance by the working class – occurred early on in capitalism. In advanced capitalism, however, they did not take place, although from 1917 workers figured more prominently in national revolutions than they had previously. And nowhere did a revolution culminate in a stable society that revolved around the interests of workers. Three possible explanatory factors are suggested: (i) due to the increased role of the state in the daily life of the people a revolution would completely disrupt daily life and thus drive up the “costs” of attempts to overthrow capitalist society; (ii) through institutional “deflection” the state is not regarded as having the main part in causing social, economic, political or cultural injustice; and (iii) the working class has increasingly become integrated in civil society through political incorporation and individualized mass consumption.